I wonder how many people muttered the words "Serves him right" when they heard of the murder of Colin Hatch in prison. Hatch was a merciless paedophile and killer.(And being mischievous - I ask myself how many of those would claim normally to oppose capital punishment.)
As a Christian, if you follow an evangelical line, it is very difficult to be an abolitionist as the only way the Scriptures support your argument is if you decontextualise or choose to misinterpret certain portions in both testaments.
Returning to Hatch, there is one point to be remembered by all believers. This man did not have time to repent. And believers want ALL to be saved.
Having embraced evil, I firmly believe that repentance would have been extremely difficult for him but let us consider a rather different scenario and ask a valid question.
In those days when offenders knew precisely when they were going to die - can we honestly say - in the borrowed words of Oscar Wilde - that this did not 'concentrate the mind wonderfully?'
With this hanging over them, we must assume that a far greater percentage did repent than is the case when there is no capital punishment and therefore no immediacy to 'get right with God'.
